The Devil's Shadow

by Frank Thiess

379 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1928

About the author

Born in Eluisenstein, Russian Livonia (now Latvia), Thiess grew up in Berlin, where his family moved after Russia had annexed Livonia. He worked as a journalist for four years until he was enlisted into the German army in World War I. Discharged after a few months because of a heart condition, he returned to Berlin and journalism. Within a few years, however. he decided to devote himself full-time to writing. His early novels were focussed on contemporary subjects — Time magazine once called him "the hot trumpet in Germany's jazz age." He married Florence Losey, an American singer. From the 1930s on, he concentrated on historical novels.

His 1936 novel, Tsushima, translated into English as The Voyage of Forgotten Men, recounted the epic journey of the Russian Second Pacific Squadron, under the command of Admiral Rozhestvensky, from the Baltic Sea to the Sea of Japan, and its defeat by the Japanese fleet at the Battle of Tsushima in 1905.

His two-part novel, Neapolitanische Legende and Caruso in Sorrent, was based on the life and career of the great Italian tenor, Enrico Caruso.

Thiess remained in Germany during the Nazi period, but there is no evidence that he joined the Nazi Party.

Thiess died 1977 in Darmstadt.

Reviews

[Liam Ostermann]

"...Third volume in a tetralogy (fancy word for a trilogy - Liam) of novels seeking to illuminate the German younger generation in the aftermath of the first World War." From a seller on Abebooks UK.

An earlier book in the series was, I think, 'The Gats of Life' also translated into English.